"In any event, this would not obviate the need for GPS upgrades in any way," said retired Maj. Gen. Craig Cooning, vice president and deputy general manager of space and intelligence systems at Boeing. "What it does represent is an elegant solution for augmentation of GPS."

GPS signals could be acquired more quickly through amplification and rebroadcasting in a low-earth-orbit system, he said. Not only could this hasten the time stamping and improve accuracy, but it could also make signal acquisition more likely in urban environments, where skyscrapers block signals. Iridium is a constellation of LEO communication satellites originally developed by Motorola Inc. in the late 1990s. When the system proved uneconomical, it was almost de-orbited early in the decade, until the Defense Department and private investors put in new money to keep the systems in orbit.

The Iridium constellation would have to be replenished in order to support the IGPS concept, Cooning said, but an upgrade of the system would be necessary in any event by 2014. Cooning said that current Iridium investors probably would need to have additional marketing applications to support IGPS, because the extension of GPS would not be profitable in its own right.

Boeing executives updated their plans on GPS, Wideband Global System and Transformational Satellite in a briefing at last week's National Space Symposium. Boeing is participating in GPS II and IIF satellites, which add the M signals for "war fighters," and L2 and L5 signals for civilian use. Military navigational accuracy will approach a centimeter on the earth's surface when the M signal is added.

Boeing also is in competition to design the GPS III satellite, often dubbed "NavWar" for its advanced military navigational capabilities.

For Transformational Satellite, or T-SAT, Boeing has partnered with Cisco Systems Inc. in developing a space-based router, and is touting its experience with Milstar in competing for the first six T-SAT satellites. That award is expected to be announced in October, and could be worth $4.5 billion. The entire T-SAT program, including ground stations, is anticipated to cost between $8 billion and $10 billion. Lockheed-Martin Corp. won the ground station program last year.

Cooning said that Boeing also is playing a critical role in the Wideband Global Satellite, formerly known as the Gapfiller Satellite. It will be capable of broadcasting and multicasting in X and Ka bands at 2.1 to 3.6 Gbits/second, though Cooning emphasized that "only T-SAT is based on Internet Protocol, and only T-SAT allows protected communications. The WGS has been funded for five satellites, so Cooning said it should not face the delays Congress has imposed on T-SAT.

Boeing could not comment on classified intelligence programs such as Future Imagery Architecture and Integrated Overhead Sigint Architecture, which were criticized for their budget delays. But Cooning did say that "the biggest lesson learned from these problems was that defense acquisition reform led to serious problems early in a design cycle. The system caused inadequate engineering and test early in the process, and that meant that costs were out of control later on."